John Carpenter

Stand Up Guys is a Blow to Al Pacino's Legacy

Michael Myers And A Dance Party

An Englishman Reviews the Lunchtime BBQ of Sonny Bryan's, Pecan Lodge and Soulman's

Barbecue isn't just a dinner food. Oh no. It's a round the clock affair (although my mooted chain of restaurants Brisket for Breakfast is yet to take off). Many lunch-only barbecue venues exist around Dallas, and what nicer midpoint to the working day is there than an injection of hot meat and sau ... More >>

Watch As Four Men Steal 30 Air Guns. Then, Tell Police Who They Are.

Last Tuesday, four men smashed the front door of Southern Staple Supply in the 7000 block of John Carpenter Freeway, stole 30 air guns and an air compressor worth a combined $14,000, then drove away in a white van. You can see the video here All four suspects are described as Hispanic males. Three ... More >>

Hacked & Slashed

Friday, January 13, at Zubar

Adding Carpenter Plaza Park to Cause a Redo of the City's Downtown Parks Master Plan

From the Downtown Parks Master PlanJust seven years ago, Carpenter Plaza Park was supposed to be part of a larger gateway to the Arts District.​We've known for a long while now that the upcoming expansion of expansion of César Chávez Boulevard and Pearl Expressway downtown, from Commerce Street ... More >>

Gennarino's is Ready to Roll like a Friggitoria

Gennarino's The crew behind the frist Dallas friggitoria.​Gennarino's announced last night they are officially hitting the streets. Gimme a big FINE-A-FRICKIN'-LEE! They've been teasing us about their Neapolitan-style friggitoria for over a month. Now, Raffealel, Armando and Alessio are ready to ... More >>

Dallas PD Needs Help ID'ing Men Who Emptied a Brook Mays, Then Pawned Instruments

Above is a video just posted by the Dallas Police Department in which two men smash-n-grab the Brook Mays on John Carpenter, stealing as many instruments as they can get their mitts on in the wee small hours of June 7. But it's a two-parter: A few hours later they're seen again at an Oak Cliff pawn ... More >>

Two-Time Oscar-Winner Once Made Nutty Short Film About Dallas Sanitation Worker

A shot from the 1974 short film Big D​I was looking for something completely, entirely, absolutely unrelated on the Texas Archive of the Moving Image's website this afternoon when I came across this recent addition to its back catalog: a short film called Big D, which comes from the Dallas Municip ... More >>

Here's the Skinny on the Travails
Of Blind Dating

​I don't work in Dallas and driving there for lunch, a blind date lunch no less, was a hard sell. So, when my friend who set me up on my first blind lunch date said it was five minutes from my office, I said "deal." (I recently went on two different blind dates. Why? I don't know. Maybe becaus ... More >>

The Revival of the Revival House: Texas Theatre to Start Showing Movies Again Next Week

Courtesy Oak Cliff Foundation​Last I heard, the folks behind the Texas Theatre's extreme makeover still needed some $7 million to get the historic Oak Cliff movie palace completely put back together again. (Some $2 mil has been raised and spent since redo efforts began in '01, but those Cliffdwell ... More >>

State Scare Of Texas

That's One Scary Effing Line-Up They've Put Together for Frightmare Film Fest

​Good God. We're slowly but surely working our way through the Dallas International Film Festival offerings -- though, from the sound of the press release that just landed in the in-box, we'd best hustle. Why come? Only a couple of weeks after that fest wraps is the Texas Frightmare Film Festival, ... More >>

Naked Man on John Carpenter Freeway Billboard Stops Traffic. Ya Think?

If Elaine knew she was going to see a naked guy on a billboard today, she would have brought a better camera.​Our own Elaine Liner had a whole different flavor of Theater Jones moments ago on southbound John Carpenter Freeway near the Regal Row exit -- right across the street from The Fan's HQ, ma ... More >>

When It Comes to the Trinity River Project, History Keeps Repeating Itself, Repeating Itself

John W. Carpenter Papers, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library,Ben Carpenter, son of John, is the one seen here pointing to a Trinity River canal master plan​Your Trinity River correspondent and advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist, which would be me, had two interesting e ... More >>

Turn Your Pad into a Haunted House With These Small-Screen Scares

For Sale, a Photo of the Man Who Took Some of the Most Iconic Early Pictures of Dallas

​Friend of Unfair Park PeterK, who knows of my affection for old Dallas photos, sends word of this rare gem for sale on eBay: a portrait -- or, perhaps, a self-portrait -- of Charles Erwin Arnold. If you're unfamiliar with the name (or the nickname, "Painter of the Lens"), perhaps you've seen some ... More >>

Short Orders: Cadillac Ranch

​Cadillac Ranch857 John Carpenter FwyIrving972-506-7262Cadillac Ranch was a roller coaster ride when I reviewed the place sometime in...well, less than a year ago. My short term memory cuts in an out, even though I take plenty of herb-infused medicine for the problem.Tastes medicinal, anyway.I sto ... More >>

Senators Take Scalpel to Local Medical Equipment Providers' Cost of Doing Business

​Six years ago, Cynthia Fitzgerald filed in Dallas federal court a complaint that The New York Times predicted in 2007 "could become one of the largest whistle-blower lawsuits on record." The suit stemmed from Fitzgerald's tenure at Novation -- a company HQ'd on John Carpenter Freeway that sells m ... More >>

Gig Alert: Guthrie Kennard Tonight at Cadillac Ranch

Unbeknownst to me, semi-local singer/songwriter Guthrie Kennard has set up a sort of residency at the Los Colinas nightspot Cadillac Ranch. If I'd been paying better attention, I would have already hustled my ass up John Carpenter Freeway and caught Kennard's fine examples of Americana much earlier ... More >>

Coraline: Things are not as they seem in Henry Selick's stunning stop-motion fairy tale

What's Happening?

Booka Shade |Henrik Schwartz |Ricardo Villalobos

DJ Kicks (!K7)|Live (!K7)|Fabric 36 (Fabric)

Glittering Hunks of Trash

Rodriguez and Tarantino overcome nostalgia in their cut-and-run grindhouse mash note

The Team-Wrecker | Racist by Any Name| Dallas Ex-pat

Unlucky 13

This Assault attacks the original and does no damage

Up From the Underworld

This year, blood-soaked extreme metal took its rightful place in the world of heavy music.

Queensryche

Friday, October 15

Don't Inhale

The Mexican caper Nicotina is all smoke and no fire

Club Directory

Club Directory

I See Nothing

Schrader turns the lens on Bob Crane...and?

Out of Focus?

Scotty Crane is tired of getting the shaft from Paul Schrader

Cowboys and Martians

John Carpenter stages a spooky showdown on the red planet

Well Dunne

The Deep Ellum Film Festival returns, suffering from the Terrific Twos

Witch Is Which?

Blair Witch 2 blurs fact and fiction, but the truth is, it ain't scary

Hearts of Darkness

The horrors of reality

His honor

Former Dallas Mayor Wallace Savage brought a conscience to unprincipled politics

Horsefeathers

What do you get when you cross a horse with a white elephant? The Las Colinas Equestrian Center.

Going down

Thirteenth Floor proves virtual reality bites

Short takes

Stake tartare

John Carpenter sinks his fangs into the screen's vampire tradition

Night & Day

May 28 - June 3, 1998

Flood money

The Trinity River Plan's billion-dollar vision of levees, parks, and ponds has Mayor Ron Kirk--and most of Dallas--spellbound. But engineers warn it could lead to a flooding catastrophe and destroy the same poor neighborhoods it's designed to help.

I love LAva

Volcano destroys Los Angeles with hot magma and cool affection

Murder by schtick

Wes Craven's Scream is bloody hilarious

Escape while you can

Is Escape from L.A. campy comedy or awful action? You decide.

Bad seeds

John Carpenter's promising Village of the Damned never flowers

Hellbound

The hyped-up supernatural thriller Hideaway is too sloppy to be scary

Kicking the corpse

Why the new wave of horror films can't scare us